Electrical connectors typically include a dielectric connector housing supporting a plurality of electrical contacts. Physical characteristics of the electrical contacts and/or the connector housing can typically govern signal integrity (SI) performance of the electrical connector. For example, mezzanine electrical connectors can be constructed with arrays of electrical contacts having fusible elements, and can be referred to as ball grid array (BGA) connectors. A pair of complementary mezzanine BGA connectors can define a stack height when mated to one another. A mezzanine BGA connector having a shorter stack height than that of typical mezzanine BGA connectors can exhibit enhanced SI characteristics relative to typical mezzanine BGA connectors. As the connector housing and the associated electrical contacts become smaller and smaller, contact retention becomes increasingly more difficult. As the amount of plastic or other suitable connector housing material is reduced, preventing the housing from warping or curling during reflow of solder masses or balls onto respective electrical contacts, during reflow of the electrical connector onto a substrate, during thermal expansion, or due to internal connector housing stress created by the electrical contacts are also a technical challenge. Preventing solder wicking along very short electrical contacts is also more difficult.